Chapter 13: Emily

I sat outside Emily and Sam's house in Paul's car, delaying the moment that I had to enter and meet her. I'd driven his car here—something I hadn't done in a long time—and he was going to meet me here after he was done patrolling. Deep down, I wished that he was with me for the initial meeting but he'd been so nonchalant about the whole thing that I hadn't even had a chance to suggest it.

Despite Paul telling me that Emily was excited to meet me, I couldn't help but be anxious about it. I must've been the only vampire on the planet that would get nervous just to meet a human.

I took a deep breath and exited Paul's car, briskly walking across Emily and Sam's lawn and to the door of their house. I knocked on the door and braced myself as I waited for her to open it.

She opened the door and smiled warmly at me. I felt my eyes widen for a moment as I took in the three thick scars that travelled from her hairline to her chin, making the right side of her mouth twist downward. Her scars were the only thing that could be seen as imperfection on her face, though—she was beautiful. The left side of her face was completely smooth and even, and her dark brown eyes were incredibly kind.

"You must be Natalie," she said.

"And you must be Emily," I replied, recovering quickly and returning her smile. She extended her right hand to me to shake it, and I saw that her scars extended down her arm and to the tips of her fingers as I shook her hand.

At our physical connection, she looked taken aback for a moment, but she recovered quickly. "Sorry—it's just my first time—"

"Shaking hands with a vampire?" I asked, smile quirking at my lips.

"Yeah, shaking hands with a vampire," she laughed. "Please, come in."

I stepped over the threshold of her house and was greeted by a cozy looking living and dining area with a huge dining table separating the two rooms. The smell of freshly baked muffins filled the air and in the kitchen I saw a huge stack of bowls and plates, filled with a mixture of loose ingredients and prepared dishes.

"I was just in the middle of cooking for the pack," she explained, returning to the kitchen and mixing a bowl. "They're always so hungry when they come back from patrolling."

"Is there anything I can help you with?" I asked.

"I'd love some help with those dishes piling up in the sink, if you don't mind," she said.

"Consider it done."

I joined her in the kitchen and began to wash the dishes, the two of us chatting as we worked. I soon realized that my earlier hesitation was completely unwarranted—Emily was lovely and seemed just as excited to get to know me as I was her. She appeared to be completely at ease with me apart from her earlier shock at how cold my skin was compared to hers.

"Paul's mentioned that you're used to moving around," she began. "How is it, staying in one place?"

"It's a bit overwhelming," I said. "I wasn't expecting any of this when I came here. I've only been here about a week, but I feel like I've been adjusting relatively well. I haven't had the urge to pack all my things and run off yet, so that's a good sign."

She laughed. "That's the imprint talking."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Paul told me it doesn't go both ways."

"Technically it doesn't," she said. "But…it's hard not to return their feelings, isn't it? And I'm sure being a vampire just makes it even more heightened."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I said.

The dishes were cleaned, dry, and put away, and Emily had put a fresh batch of muffins in the oven. She had a platter full of sandwiches prepared for whenever the pack showed up and I was amazed at her dedication to them.

"It's the least I can do," she said with a shrug. "They protect our town and take care of us, I owe it to them to return the favour."

"You take such good care of them," I said, sitting at the table and crossing my legs underneath me. "I can tell just from the way Paul talks about you."

She smiled warmly. "When he first started phasing and things were getting bad with his parents, he'd crash on the couch all the time. Since then, this has become a sort-of home base for the entire pack."

"Talking about me again?"

I turned to see a shirtless Paul entering the house, somehow looking both exhausted and exhilarated.

"Yeah, Emily was just telling me how horrible of a house guest you were when you stayed here," I teased.

He laughed. "I think Sam was the most irritated by me being here."

"You kept drinking all his coffee," Emily teased.

"It's an addiction," Paul shrugged, approaching me and pressing a kiss to my forehead.

"Where are Leah, Embry, and Quil?" Emily asked.

"They'll be here soon," Paul said, plucking a sandwich off the platter. "They just had a few things to finish up with Sam."

My stomach tightened uneasily—meeting Emily had gone smoother than I ever could have imagined, but how would the other pack members react to me? Paul squeezed my shoulder in reassurance and took a seat next to me, wrapping an arm around my waist.

I knew that I was being ridiculous with how anxious I was feeling—these were some of the most important people in Paul's life and I knew that I'd need to grow up and meet them eventually.

All I could do was hope that rest of the pack didn't share Jared's mindset about me.

Sure enough, fifteen minutes after Paul's arrival to Emily's house, Leah, Embry, and Quil arrived as well. Each of them shared the same look of slight exhaustion that Paul had when he'd entered. Leah was beautiful—her Quileute lineage was strong in her features and her inky black hair was cut to her chin. We all exchanged slightly awkward introductions and I couldn't help but notice the tense way that Leah held herself as she sat at the table a few seats away from the rest of us.

Paul sent a quick smile my way to reassure me, before turning to Embry and Quil and saying, "Natalie beat me in a race yesterday."

"No way!" Embry said. I noticed Leah lean forward slightly—her interest also piqued by what Paul had said.

"Did you phase?" Quil asked eagerly.

"Nah," Paul said. "I figured I'd go easy on her."

"I still would've beaten you even if you had phased," I said.

"Where did you race from?" Embry asked.

"Near Sol Duc all the way back to my apartment," Paul said.

"How much quicker were you?" Quil asked, meeting my eyes.

"Seven minutes," I replied. "I was lounging on the couch by the time he got back."

"She could probably give you a run for your money, Leah," Paul said.

"No way!" Quil said. "Leah's the fastest out of all of us."

"I wonder who's stronger between then two of you," Embry mused.

Paul laughed. "Not even a competition—definitely me."

I raised a brow. "Do you want to test that theory?"

"I don't want to embarrass you," he said.

"Scared?" I taunted. Embry and Quil were looking between us with excitement dancing in their eyes, while Emily and Leah looked amused. "Arm wrestle?"

He turned so he was facing me and rested his elbow on the table, holding his hand out to me. "You're on."

"Not in here!" Emily chided. "I don't need you destroying my table! There's the big tree stump out back from the when Sam chopped up that tree for firewood—use that instead."

The six of us went out to Emily's backyard and I saw the massive tree trunk that reached my sternum. Paul and I stood on either side of it and clasped hands with both of our elbows resting on the wood.

"Place your bets now!" Paul called out to the small group that was watching us.

"My money's on Paul," Embry said.

"Nah, I'm going with Natalie," Quil said.

"You sure you wanna do this?" Paul asked, corners of his mouth twitching upwards.

"Oh, I'm positive," I said.

Embry counted us down and then we started. I knew that neither of us were using our full strength initially but as Paul began to push my arm slightly, I locked my elbow into place, stopping him from moving it at all.

We stood like that for ten minutes, anytime one of us would move the other's arm, it would immediately be blocked by the other person. Embry and Quil were intently watching for the precise moment that one of us would have to give in and would get excited at the slightest movement on either of our parts.

"Hello?"

The voice startled me, making me lose concentration on our arm wrestle for a moment and Paul seized the opportunity, pushing my arm back a few inches before I stopped him again. I shook my head slightly, trying to clear it and hoping that I'd imagined the voice and that it had just been the wind.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

The voice was stronger this time and I jerked backwards, completely losing concentration on our arm wrestling match, so Paul was able to get my hand to hit the tree stump, causing cracks to appear in the wood from the force of my hand hitting it. He let go of me and immediately began to stretch out his arm, muscles probably aching from how long we'd been going for.

I couldn't focus on his celebration of victory because the spirit that had been trying to communicate with me had finally showed himself fully. He was a kind looking Quileute man and he looked startled for a moment before he began to rapidly speak.

I shook my head back and forth a few times, trying to clear it. The spirit was still speaking and I was about to answer him, to ask for more clarification when Paul's face filled my vision.

"Are you okay?" he asked, putting his hot hands on either side of my face. "What's wrong?"

"Does…does the name Harry Clearwater mean anything to you?"

Paul stiffened slightly and glanced back at Leah, who had begun to march towards us at what I'd said. Emily, Embry, and Quil watched anxiously as Leah approached us.

"What did you just say?" she demanded.

"My daughter…" the spirit said. He was behind me now, eyes trained on Leah.

"He…he wants me to tell you that it's not your fault," I whispered, meeting Leah's eyes. Paul's hands came off of my face and he glanced over at Leah, whose eyes had filled with tears at my words.

Leah glared at him. "Do you think this is funny, Paul? You told her?!"

"I didn't say anything!" Paul said. "She—"

"Sure," she sneered before storming around to the front of the house.

"Dammit," Paul muttered, looking at Leah's retreating figure before turning back to me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," I mumbled. "I'll go talk to her."

I was about to push past him when he held my arm, stopping me from moving. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. "This was my job for a long time—I can handle it."

I succeeded in pushing past Paul and followed Leah's footsteps. I found her on Emily's front porch, her arms rested against the railing and tears steadily streaming down her cheeks. She was gazing out at the road and only turned when I was standing next to her on the porch. She quickly wiped her tears away and looked back out at the road almost immediately.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly. "I wouldn't have said all of that in front of them if I'd known—"

"So what? You're like a medium or something?" she asked, voice thick with tears.

"Something like that."

"What else did he say?" she asked.

"He…he can see how much pain you're in," I said. "He knows that you're blaming yourself for what happened and he wants you to know that he doesn't blame you and neither does anyone else." Her lip trembled, but she took a deep breath to steady herself. "He also said that he's proud of you and that he's grateful that you're taking care of Seth."

She laughed through her tears. "He needs someone to take care of him. He hasn't been taking our dad's death well."

"Have you been doing okay?" I asked.

Her eyes were swimming with sadness as she turned to me again. "No, but I've been pretending that I am."

"I wish I could tell you that it gets easier, but it doesn't," I said as gently as possible. "My dad passed away thirteen years ago, but I haven't been able to talk to him since I was turned. I'd give anything to hear the words your dad said to you."

"Has your dad ever…appeared to you?" she asked.

I shook my head. "He hasn't and I've been afraid to try and contact him. Neither of my parents have ever appeared to me. I've visited their graves but never tried to contact them."

"Why not?"

"I think I've been too afraid to," I admitted. "I feel like, deep down, I think that they'd be horrified at what I've become. I've always thought that if they wanted to speak to me, they would've tried to by now."

"Yeah, I see your point," she said. "Thank you for telling me what he said."

"I'm sorry again for bringing it up the way I did," I said.

"Don't be," she said. "You were caught off guard." We were quiet for a few moments before she broke the silence again by saying, "You know, when Jared told me what happened with you and Paul…I pretty much had the same reaction as he did. When Paul let me know that you'd be here today, I nearly bit his head off for it, but this…this isn't too bad."

"I appreciate that," I said.

"I just…I need to know that you're not going to hurt him," she said. "He's like a brother to me and I don't want to see him get hurt."

"That's the last thing I'd want to do," I said, ignoring the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"I'm going to head home and talk to Seth," she said. "Could you…let Paul know that I'm not angry with him? I just don't think I can go back there and face all of them just yet."

"Definitely," I said.

She waved goodbye to me and began to walk away from Emily's house. I stood alone on the front porch after she left, trying to clear my head after my encounter with Harry Clearwater. It had been a long time since I'd been caught so off guard by a spirit appearing to me and I felt thrown off by it.

I gazed out at the road in front of the house, watching as the rain soaked Emily's front lawn.